Slave Harem in the Labyrinth of the Other World (LN)

Volume 5 - Ch 3.7

Translator: DarkHeartedAlchemist Editor: Weasalopes

So the person for whom Gozer was waiting here in the waiting room must have been Luke. I guess that should not be all that surprising, since it is nothing unusual for the nobles to take part in the auctions organized by the Merchants Guild through the brokers and middlemen just like the rest of us common folk do. And since he knows Luke, then I guess that has to mean that Luke must have some connections to the Hartz Duchy.

I guess you can say so.

Is that so? Then please excuse my intrusion.

Gozer then left along with his two subordinates, who were accompanying Luke. They were also elves, and of the especially good-looking variety at that.

Damn you, pretty boys! Damn you all to hell, truly!

*Sigh* Are all elves as good looking as these guys?

It would seem so.

Roxanne replied to my weary comment without any particular expression on her face and speaking incredibly matter-of-factly. From the looks of it, it appears that she is was not interested in them at all, which made me feel relieved. The last thing that I want in my life is Roxanne getting NTRed by some pretty-looking elven fag.

An elf and a broker, what a perfect combination.

Oh no! Sherry seems to be interested I them! What should I do? Should I start worrying? Or maybe try to somehow persuade her that noting good will come from her being interested in elven ikemen, or maybe I should play my Master Card and outright forbid her to associate herself with any Elven men? For the time being, maybe I should try asking her what exactly did she mean by the words perfect combination.

Perfect combination?

Yes, you can even say that they were made for each other. With both Elves and brokers, you may never know what the are truly thinking under those mask-like faces of theirs, and that is why most of the other races tend to distrust them, and I can definitely understand why that would be, because whenever I am looking at one of them, I always get this uneasy, unpleasant feeling that I can never put into words well enough.

Oh, is that so?

While we were still kids, everyone in my village was always telling us younglings that Elves are not to be trusted and that we should be wary of them if we ever meet on of their kind.

So apparently the good old fantasy trope of Dwarves not getting along with Elves much is pretty much alive and kicking in this world as well, huh? Well, they can be on unfriendly terms all they want for all that I care, just as long as they leave Roxanne and Sherry alone. With that said, I am very satisfied with the fact that Sherry is as interested in elves as she would be in a pile of a dirty, leftover snow from last years winter, and that seems to be not just her personal preference, but a racial thing as well. However, the matter that is still pretty much shrouded in mystery is the question of why she dislikes brokers and middlemen so much. Also, I wonder what she would have done if she ever happened upon an Elven broker?

So getting acquainted with a broker or an Elves is absolutely out of the question for you then, Sherry?

No, not necessarily. Even if they are Elves and they cannot be trusted, I realize that not every Elf out there is a bad Elf, and that it is important to get to know them first before jumping into conclusions or making any hasty judgements.

Good, so even when it comes to such things, Sherry is trying to behave in a rational manner, and her distrust of Elves in not something unconditional dictated by the deeply rooted racial hatred and racism between Dwarves and Elves, so there should not be any problems stemming from that in the future.

All right, shall we get back home then?

We still have a little more than three hours to go, so I think that we can go to Vale and still make it in time.

Roxanne told me that as I was preparing to go back home. Her internal bodys clock seems to be a really reliable thing.

Sherry making another batch of equipment, us having breakfast, meeting with Luke for the purpose of me buying a Green Caterpillar Skill Crystal and happening upon Gozer in the waiting room of the Merchants Guild. have all these things took us just around one hour? Somehow, I find it pretty difficult to believe.

Since Roxanne herself suggested it, we went to Vales Labyrinth for a bit, and while we were going through it, I asked Sherry about one thing that I did not understand from my conversation with Gozer, so I was hoping that she was going to shed some light onto that matter.

Sherry, can you tell me what exactly is The Orb of Self Destruction?

To put it really simply, it is an item that allows its user to perform a suicide attack.

A suicide attack? That sounds pretty scary.

If you use Orb of Self Destruction, you inflict massive damage to your opponent in exchange for your own life. It is being advertised as a perfect method of self defense when everything else fails and you do not want to simply allow monsters from the Labyrinths to kill you without putting up a fight, but I have not heard about many people actually using it.

Well, I can definitely see why that would be.

After all, even if it is meant to be used a s a weapon of last resort, I think we are all going to agree that you would have to be a very special kind of insane to actually want to use something that would wipe out all of your enemies but ended up killing you in the process of doing so.

and how exactly does that item work? The attack that it triggers, I mean.

When it comes to The Orb of Self Destruction and how it works, it seems to be causing a huge explosion that ends up obliterating the user and everything around him, leaving only the bloodstains on the floor and walls behind.

Wow, that sounds like a pretty terrifying item, so I definitely do not want to have anything to do with it, and even think about what would have happened if someone were to use such a dangerous tool incorrectly or irresponsibly. Yeah, the best thing that you can do when you come across something like that is to just leave it be and do not touch it at all. That would be one less problem to worry about for you and everyone in your immediate surroundings.

Ahh, so that must have been what one of the Bandits who attacked the Slave Shop in Vale used when master found him dead in one of those rooms on the first floor, right? He even looked extremely similarly to what Sherry was describing when it came to how much blood was left from him.

Roxanne remarked when she picked up on mine and Sherrys talk. Yes, she is talking about that one guy whom I have found in one of the rooms on the first floor of Alan-sans Slave Shop, the one that I have defeated by using the Equivalent ExchangeSkill from the repertoire of the Bonus Spells section of my Bonus Skills. When I used that Skill on him, there really was nothing left of him aside from that bloody smear on the rooms walls and floor. And apparently the usage of The Orb of Destruction would have had pretty much the same effect.

Damn.

Of course, on that night in the Slave Shop, it was not the Bandit that used The Orb of Self Destruction, but it was the result of me using Equivalent Exchange, but I guess that from the perspective of someone who was not there the entire time and did not see it all happen, the difference between one and the other would probably be pretty much indistinguishable. Back then, when I first saw what happened to that poor sap when the spell got to him, I told myself that I should not be using it at all, but with how the current situation has developed, I think that I can start employing that Spell again and then cheat both the system and those around me by saying that said enemy used The Orb of Self Destruction.

Are there any restrictions or limitations for as to how The Orb of Self Destruction can work?